A Cornered Critter….

Nothing gives me more delight than to see a Racist cringe and squirm when cornered with facts about their racism. Call me sadistic if you want, I have no regrets about the joy I feel at their discomfort.Reason being, Racism is a malady easily cured with information, openness, and eschewing hatred.

On Wednesday I got to salivate at another example of that discomfort, this time it was in the hearing room in the US Capitol building, as the House Oversight Committee conducted hearings in the ongoing Trump Russia saga, with Michael Cohen Trump’s former personal lawyer testifying to the committee. Quite predictably, with one minor exception, the entire Republican questions to Michael Cohen was about his character.Not one Republican member cared to ask a single question regarding the crimes Cohen alleged that Donald Trump committed.In a shocking yet predictable display of slavish fealty, the world watched as the Republican members of the committee demonstrated that they were nothing more than cheap water carriers for Donald Trump.

But it was Mark Meadows who squirmed under the spotlight as a freshman member of the Committee, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan’s 13th District trained her fire on the corruption and later on Mark Meadows the leader of the so-called Freedom caucus on the Republican side.In a stirring address to the committee, Congresswoman Tlaib went straight to the corruption rampant in the Trump White House.

Rashida Tlaib addresses the committee

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman for centering this committee on our sole purpose: exposing the truth. Some of my colleagues can’t handle the truth and this unfortunate because it is at the center of protecting our country. “The people at home are frustrated and want the criminal schemes to stop, especially those from the Oval Office. “Mr. Cohen, I am upset, and know that my residents feel the same way, that the man you worked for the past 10 years, is using the most powerful position in the world, to hurt our country solely for personal gain. “We are upset that some of my colleagues here are so disconnected of what it means to have this President of the United States sending checks to cover bribe payments you made on his behalf. One in March 2017 and another one August 2017 after he was sworn in as President. “They (my residents) are all upset that while my colleagues are trying to discredit your testimony by some of your own unlawful acts and lies, that they are disconnected with the fact that you were the personal lawyer for this President of the United States. That this President chose YOU as his legal counsel. “My stance has always been the same based on the facts of what we know not of some future report that we are waiting on. My residents back home don’t need a collusion cause with a foreign government to know that the President, Individual 1, has disregarded the law of the land, the US Constitution, that he has even misused his pardon powers. “In the sentencing memo filed by federal prosecutors in New York in December of last year, they stated, quote: “’In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1.’ “Mr. Cohen, as you know President Donald Trump “brand” comes first, not the American people. Based on what we know now is that individual 1 used his money, businesses, and platform to enrich himself, his brand, and in the process directed you, Mr. Cohen, to commit multiple felonies and cover it up. You called it “protecting his brand great,” correct?“Mr. Cohen, with this, do you think the President is making decisions in the best interests of Americans? Especially those that you said he used horrible words about? African Americans? Muslims Americans? Immigrants?

Lynne Patton,

But then Congresswoman Tlaib directed her fire at Mark Meadows who in the most asinine way imaginable, brought an African-American woman to the committee as a prop to demonstrate to the world that Donald Trump could not be a racist as alleged by Michael Cohen, because she worked for Donald Trump.The woman in question, a non-committee member Lynne Patton, was brought in by Meadows and made to stand on the GOP side of the dais while Meadows berated Michael Cohen in front of the entire world.Patton, a former party planner for the Trump Organization and old friend of Cohen’s, who now oversees public housing in New York and New Jersey for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, stood silently as Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) pointed to her, a black woman: “Lynne Patton says she would not work for a man who is racist,” the congressman said, after Cohen had referred to Trump in his prepared remarks as a racist. “She disagrees with you.”Micahel Cohen recommended Patton to Donald Trump for employment. So to use Patton against Cohen was in a word, ‘stupid.”And on that congresswoman Tlaib was merciless.

Just to make a note Mr. Chairman, just because someone has a person of color, a Black person working for them, does not mean that aren’t racist. And it’s insensitive, some would even say racist in itself, to use a Black woman as a prop to prove otherwise. “Donald Trump is setting a precedent that the highest office can be attained through intentional illegal activity, cover up, and to hold onto business assets to break campaign finance law and constitutional clauses. “What we have here is criminal conduct in the pursuit of the highest public office by Mr. Cohen and Individual 1. I hope that the gravity of this situation hits everyone in this body, in Congress, and across the country.”

Like a cornered Critter, Mark Meadows was livid at Tlaib, he lashed out claiming that Patton had come to the hearing of her own volition…………………………….. Right! Meadows also pointed to the fact that members of his own family were people of color. It’s racist to suggest I asked her to come in for that reason,” Meadows said. Meadows demanded that Congresswoman Tlaib’s exchangebe “stricken from the record” and adamantly denied allegations of racism.

Mark Meadows

Mark Meadows must have forgotten that he was videotaped in 2012 making racist comments against President Barack Obama.“2012 is the time we’re going to send Mr. Obama home to Kenya or wherever it is,” Meadows said at a June 9, 2012, rally. “We’re going to do it!” Three days later, he made a similar remark at a Tea Party event.

Now I really don’t want to spend any more time talking about Mark Meadows, a backwater unenlightened tea-party racist. Already too much thought has been given to this two-bit ignoramus who cowered like a cornered dog begging the black chairman of the committee, Elijah Cummings to come to his defense. Frankly, if you are not a racist there is no need for anyone to come to your defense to vouch for you. You would have a record of doing things which are not racists. Unfortunately for Meadows, he is the tip of the spear when it comes to white entitlement and white racism in America.The idea that he believed that bringing Patton in, and using her as a prop, would be something which would blunt charges of racism against Donald Trump is insanely preposterous on its face. Not to mention Meadows’ insensitivity to the ignorant racism within himself and far too many white Americans who claim not to be racist, but whose actions are the personification of racism.

As for the prop, I won’t give her any more thought either. Any person of color, least of all an African-American who allows him/herself to be used in that degrading and transparent a racist manner, deserves to be used in that degrading and racist manner.As the late, great James Baldwin said “I am not your negro.”